All the extra-parliamentary parties forming part of the political system of Moldova are useful to society one way or another, expert Igor Botan, director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEP, said in the public debate “The extra-parliamentary opposition: real alternative to the power, game of the power, political game on one’s own. The culture of political relations between the government and extra-parliamentary opposition” that were staged by Info-Prim Neo on June 7. “All the current parliamentary parties had been extra-parliamentary not long ago and the leaders of the current extra-parliamentary parties should realize that they can enter Parliament after the next elections,” he stated. Igor Botan stressed that the parties, whose representatives took part in the debate, are useful in a certain way. “For example, the Anti-Mafia Movement struggle against the mafia in Moldova. The way they work is another question, but they are a necessary party,” he said. The Republican People’s Party is also useful, considers Igor Botan. “Its leader (Nicolae Andronic – e.n.) has a rich experience and can motivate his colleagues to break the wall and seize power,” said the expert. According to Igor Botan, the National Liberal Party is a useful, explicit unionist party, unlike the Liberal Party, which is an implicit unionist one, which avoids accepting this. He also said that Mihai Petrache, who heads the Centrist Union Party, anticipated many of the problems faced now by Moldova, including the older dispute over the presidential or parliamentary system of government. “I didn’t agree with him then, but now I admit that he was right,” he stated. As to the Ecologist Party “Green Alliance”, Igor Botan said the current ecologists are the sowers who should understand that the generations that will come to reap the harvest will throw the seeds into soil that is not ready for cultivation. “We are rural society. I don’t know if this is good or bad. We must learn from others’ mistakes. I think you do useful things, but it depends on the context in which they are done. Nobody anticipated that the Liberal Party will enter Parliament, but Dorin Chirtoaca pulled the party after him after becoming a favorite in society,” said the expert. The debate involved five leaders of extra-parliamentary opposition parties: Alexandra Can, deputy chairwoman of the National Liberal Party, Daniela Bodrug, deputy head of the People’s Movement Anti-Mafia, Nicolae Andronic, head of the Republican People’s Party, Mihai Petrache, chairman of the Centrist Union Party, and Andrei Dumbraveanu, secretary general of the Ecologist Party “Green Alliance”. They held discussions between each other and with the head of the Liberal parliamentary group Ion Hadarca, who is a member of the Council of the Alliance for European Integration. The public debate “The extra-parliamentary opposition: real alternative to the power, game of the power, political game on one’s own. The culture of political relations between the government and extra-parliamentary opposition” is the sixth event of the kind organized within the project “Development of Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the German foundation Hanns Seidel.